1. The University faces a significant challenge: how to enhance academic excellence by embracing diversity.
2. Diversity is a voluntary belief system that values all forms of human differences, not only color and gender.
3. Diversity is a value and goal to be attained, empowering each individual and group to be heard and to participate equally.
4. UNM must have a coherent, coordinated, evaluated effort to promote diversity among faculty, students and staff.
5. Through its outreach programs, the University must take advantage of its unique opportunity to promote understanding of diversity throughout the State
6. The cultural riches of New Mexico are frequently overlooked as the University pursues more generic models of excellence.
7. UNM should make a long-term commitment to achieving both federal goals for underutilized groups and state goals to have the diversity of UNM mirror that of the state.
8. UNM should demonstrate that diversity is a major priority by clearly and consistently communicating the message from top administration throughout the fabric of the University, and by rewarding successes in the achievement of measurable outcomes.
9. Personal recruiting of applicants and pre-applicants coupled with effective mentoring programs have achieved notable successes. These proactive programs (Law, Education) should serve as models for other units in the University.
10. Our diversity should be a recruitment advantage and should be a prominent part of all recruitment and promotional documents, including the UNM Home Page; our diversity should also be a reason that people want to come to UNM and to continue to work and study here.
11. Retention of a diverse workforce must be a top priority. It is crucially important to implement in all units effective mentoring that does not expect new faculty, students, or staff to fit into a monolithic model of success.
12. The University should promote multiculturalism rather than assimilation.
13. The number and diversity of academic support programs for UNM students are beneficial. However there is an equally valid need for a centralized way to coordinate efforts, share knowledge, and define "best practices."
14. UNM should disseminate by all possible means (print, web pages, other media) stories that describe attempts, successes, and failures that can serve to guide us in the development of best practices and new paradigms.
15. Outreach activities, including Service Learning, offer opportunities for students, staff, and faculty to directly experience diversity in the community, while also fostering UNM-community contact and collaboration. An excellent example is the multidisciplinary training program in the Health Sciences Center.
16. The Teaching Resource Center and the Center for the Advancement of Scholarship in Teaching and Learning (CASTL) should aim to produce faculty role models who promote diversity in the learning environment.
17. The University has unique scientific expertise in program evaluation. This expertise should be used to implement "Continuous Quality Improvement" in our efforts to attract, recruit, and retain diverse employees and students, and to promote their success.
18. Teachers in every discipline should be provided with the resources to integrate diversity into their curricula. This should serve to place diversity in the forefront of education.
19. Given the state’s unique historical, linguistic, cultural, and societal resources, UNM should aspire to a multicultural institution at the vanguard of integrative, multidisciplinary inquiry both in basic and applied scholarship.
20. UNM could be a national leader in creating new ways of living together and resolving conflicts related to, for example, rationing resources (i.e. water and land and energy). To do so, we will have to rely on the best minds, which will be found in all our diverse population groups. UNM should play a key role in embracing their participation in the intellectual community, both in the arts and sciences and in the professional schools.
21. If we can begin to truly practice an internal commitment to becoming a diversity-friendly institution, we will need to begin a diversity consciousness raising process and to place our own institution as a research subject in this endeavor.
22. UNM should create a university wide dialogue by conducting and sharing the results of a "diversity-audit" that assesses what we are already doing well and suggests how we can do better.

Diversity is the very essence of a university, and a measure of its health. Rather than training or indoctrination in a single perspective, a university education fundamentally involves acquainting students with a rich variety of information and views, and challenging them to integrate and think critically about what they learn. Differences — including those of opinion, race, cultural background, religion, socioeconomic status, sexual preference, lifestyle, and disciplinary approach — are not merely tolerated, but are valued and cherished in a true university. As reflected in the UNM’s statement of strategic directions, the broad aim is:

This report is divided into five sections and two appendices. This first section provides a conceptual framework for viewing diversity in a complex environment, and an overview of how the report is organized. Section 2 focuses on the current resources, strengths, and competitive advantages of the University of New Mexico. Section 3 provides a brief description of the diversity programs that currently exist. Section 4 includes a broad discussion of the gaps that exist in current programs. Finally, Section 5 offers some recommendations of the committee, with a more detailed list provided in Appendix A.

A conceptual framework for understanding and managing diversity in complex organizations [Cox (1993) Cultural Diversity in Organizations] describes briefly three types of organizations; monolithic, pluralistic, or multicultural. Information in this book, as well as in a paper by Muller & Haase (Hospital & Health Services Administration, 39:4, Winter 1994) can assist us in determining where UNM is currently and where we aspire to be in the future.

As a working definition of diversity, the committee commends and was guided by the following:

Certain important aspects of institutional diversity - notably Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action programs - involve mandatory compliance responsibilities requiring that we be blind to and aware of (respectively) color and gender differences (see Section 2a below). When viewed more broadly in a University context, however, diversity is a voluntary belief system that values all forms of human differences, not only color, ethnicity, and gender. Diversity is a value and goal to be attained, empowering each individual and group to be heard and to participate equally in whatever activity, process, department, or administrative structure one chooses. In this way, the committee differentiates among equal opportunity, affirmative action, and the promotion of diversity.

When viewed in this way, diversity is not an aspect of the University to be managed through specific programs, but rather it is a vital, fundamental value that should be represented and promoted throughout all of our programs and functions. This report emphasized making diversity a central goal and value of the University of New Mexico, to be kept as a standard in all its endeavors in order to be the best that it can be in all its mission areas.

2. UNM’S CURRENT RESOURCES, STRENGTHS, AND ADVANTAGES

The University of New Mexico is uniquely positioned to embrace the diversity of the people in its geographical region, the second most ethnically diverse of the United States, and to build a model and strong institutional culture that reflects this advantage. UNM’s human resources and programmatic endeavors represent a competitive advantage, reflecting the unique historical and cultural legacy of New Mexico. However, UNM has not yet realized this potential. Indeed, as discussed below, much remains to be done to create a truly diversity-friendly and multicultural institution.

In addition to its educational and research contributions, UNM provides many services to a diverse community -- including (among others) health care, continuing education, social services and volunteer work in service learning programs -- and access to resources, including museums, libraries, and cultural events. For example, health care consumers who do not speak English or who have different cultural traditions, beliefs, and health practices are known to have less access to prevention-education and health care delivery. UNM is uniquely positioned to provide, improve, and study services to these local populations. This has been a particular asset in attracting research and program funding to UNM.

UNM also has great potential to extend its services to everyone in the state, not only those who are in close geographical proximity. Examples of current programs of this kind include the development tele-medicine, the branch campuses, KNME, and statewide continuing education.

Through such outreach, the University has particular opportunity to promote understanding of diversity throughout the State. UNM’s Continuing Education and media services already contribute in this regard. UNM can inform and instruct the general public about diversity. A prime example of this was KNME’s award-winning program, Surviving Columbus, which was broadcast nationally via PBS. UNM also has the opportunity to be a source of unity among University and community leaders, both within special constituencies (such as Hispanic and Native American groups) and more generally, helping to overcome isolation and disconnection by bringing leaders together. Through its many existing programs, UNM has a unique opportunity, as well as a unique responsibility, to help the larger community understand diversity-relevant emergent social issues such as drugs, poverty, low educational achievement, and the environment.

UNM is sometimes referred to as a "University of the Americas" because of its many interdisciplinary programs that incorporate programs representative of the diverse New Mexican population and because of its cultural and historic links to Central and South America, and the strong tradition of Latin American programs at UNM. The cultural resources of UNM include its museums and galleries, branch campuses, performing arts venues, and libraries and archives that maintain collections are reflective of New Mexico’s culture and history. UNM is in an ideal situation to not only promote cultural enrichment programs, but also infuse and be reflective of the multi-cultural southwest. UNM has the potential to be a leader in the area of cultural programs and services because of the unique history and cultures of the southwest, which include a multitude of tribal communities and a very large and internally diverse Hispanic population. The cultural riches of New Mexico are the heart of its tourism industry, yet these resources are frequently overlooked by the University as it pursues a more generic model of excellence. Cultural activities at UNM, which deserve greater attention, include performing arts, literary arts, exhibitions, lectures and events that highlight collections at the various UNM archives. These activities can enhance development of new curricular programs, as well as draw a greater interest from the larger statewide communities because these are what define the identities of New Mexicans.

The University of New Mexico exists to educate, to conduct research and creative activities, and to perform related services on behalf of the community that supports it. The University recognizes its responsibility to extend equal employment and educational opportunities to all qualified individuals and its responsibility to its students and to the citizens of the state to actively recruit and hire the best qualified persons and to do so in the context of its commitment to affirmative action principles and diversity.

The University is committed to affirmative action to build a diverse student body and workforce and believes there is no place for prejudice and injustice. University policy, state and federal law and regulations forbid unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, physical or mental disability, age, sex, sexual preference, ancestry, or medical condition in recruiting, hiring, training, promoting, and all other terms and conditions of employment. All University personnel policies are administered without regard to the characteristics or conditions listed above, except when one of these characteristics or conditions is a bona fide occupational qualification.

In order to meet the above commitments and responsibilities, and pursuant to 41 C.F.R. 60-2.21 and 41 C.F.R. 60-50.2(B), the University disseminates its EEO/AA policy to members of the University community in many ways including distributing a poster signed by the President detailing the University EEO/AA policy to all Deans and Directors to be posted at physical work locations; offering workshops for managers, supervisors and other employees throughout the year to emphasize the importance of EEO/AA in all personnel decisions; sending a letter to managers from the Office of Equal Opportunity each year at the time the annual Affirmative Action Plan is released reminding managers of their responsibilities; including the EEO/AA policy in the University’s Business Policies and Procedures Manual, the Faculty Handbook, and the Student Employee Handbook; requiring all managers to list whether an open position is underutilized on the job requisition form, the first form submitted at the beginning of the hiring process; making the annual Affirmative Action Plan available for review to any interested employee; and including the University’s commitment to Affirmative Action in the orientation for all new employees and members of the faculty. The University also publicizes in the University Course Catalog and the Pathfinder its anti-discrimination policies. Further, the Office of Equal Opportunity monitors all faculty and upper administrative hiring closely and statistically. All search committees must be diverse and include at least one woman and one minority group member. The process is monitored closely to assure that the candidates are treated equally and that the candidates are selected on their abilities to do the essential functions of the job.

In addition to internal dissemination, the University reaffirms its EEO/AA policy to the public, local government, local community interest groups, and business organizations in the following ways: subcontractors, vendors, and suppliers are informed of the EEO/AA policy at the time of each transaction and a clause is incorporated into all covered purchase orders, invoices, leases, and contracts in order to ensure compliance; organizations and recruiting sources concerned with minority and female interests are notified of the EEO/AA policy; help wanted advertising is placed with a notation that the University is an "Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer and Educator;" and recruiting sources are informed orally and in writing that the University seeks minority and female referrals for all positions listed.

Ultimate responsibility for compliance with applicable non-discrimination and affirmative action laws and policies lies with the Regents of the University and the University’s executive officers. The President of the University is accountable for the University’s Affirmative Action Plan and pursuant to 41 C.F.R. 60-2.22, Vice Presidents, Deans, Directors and other administrators including line managers, University Counsel, the Director of Human Resources, the Director of the Office of Equal Opportunity, Dispute Resolution, Faculty Dispute Resolution, Staff Services, Faculty, and Student Affairs also have responsibilities for the implementation of the University’s Affirmative Action Plan and the University’s commitment to non-discrimination.

Internal audit and reporting systems are necessary to assist University executives, administrators and managers in ensuring that the University is meeting all EEO objectives and working towards fulfilling the intention of the Affirmative Action Plan. The Director of the Office of Equal Opportunity reviews employment activity to determine the impact of institutional practices on the employment of all individuals, with particular emphasis on minorities and women. In addition, a Goal Attainment Deficiencies Analysis is prepared annually and an annual Underutilization Report is prepared to monitor the utilization of protected classes in each job group within each EEO-6 category. The report also serves to monitor and audit minority and female hiring, rehiring, separations (voluntary and involuntary), promotions, and transfers into and out of job groups. Further, annually a written narrative which analyzes and accompanies the EEO Status Report is distributed to Vice Presidents and Deans and highlights areas where progress has been made in the utilization of minorities and females as well as departments and/or job groups that require continued attention to staffing decisions to ensure additional progress for minorities and women.

The University’s employment policies, practices and procedures are in conformity with the Sex Discrimination Guidelines established in 41 C.F.R. 60-20. The University recruits both men and women for all positions and the Equal Opportunity policy specifically prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of sex. The Office of Equal Opportunity staff ensures that employees and applicants of both sexes are considered equally for all positions for which they are qualified. The Office of Equal Opportunity staff further ensures that employment opportunities, wages, hours, conditions of employment, retirement eligibility and benefits, recreation programs and employee fringe benefits are administered equally to both sexes through periodic reports.

The University policy on sexual harassment is generally communicated in the University’s policy statement and is communicated in more specific detail in the University Business Policies and Procedures Manual. Procedures for investigating and resolving questions or concerns of sexual harassment and information about how to file a complaint are widely disseminated in a variety of publications. The Office of Equal Opportunity provides anti-sexual harassment training regularly through the Human Resources Training Department as well as in-house training to departments on an as needed basis or by request.

The University is prohibited from discriminating against employees or applicants for employment because of religion or national origin. University employment policies, practices and procedures are in conformity with 41 C.F.R. 60-50.3 and the University makes every effort to accommodate the known religious observances and practices of an employee or prospective employee. UNM engages is numerous outreach programs to ethnic and religious organizations for the purpose of recruitment of students and employees from all ethnic and religious groups.

The University of New Mexico does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices on the basis of physical or mental disability or veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law. UNM makes reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities unless doing so would result in an undue hardship. The University has established a procedure for requesting reasonable accommodations in the employment setting and is currently working on a similar policy for students in the academic setting. The Director of the Office of Equal Opportunity is the Americans with Disabilities Act and Rehabilitation Act Coordinator for the University and is charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the reasonable accommodation needs of all disabled UNM employees and students are met fully and in a timely manner.

The Office of Equal Opportunity works closely with the University leadership to implement programs that will help the University and the Hiring Units achieve their goals and improve utilization of persons with disabilities, and Vietnam Era veterans at both the staff and faculty levels. In addition, the University’s job descriptions reflect fully the essential functions of the positions, as well as the physical and mental skills and abilities required to perform those functions. Qualification requirements that tend to screen out qualified individuals with disabilities or Vietnam Era Veterans are reviewed to assure that they are job-related and consistent with business necessity and the performance of the particular job. Mental and physical job qualifications are reviewed as new job qualifications are established. The University engages in recruitment efforts to provide meaningful employment opportunities to qualified individuals with disabilities and Vietnam Era veterans including holding formal briefing sessions with representatives from recruiting sources and making formal arrangements for referral of applicants. The University’s recruitment efforts also incorporate special efforts to reach students with disabilities and Vietnam Era veterans such as engaging in recruitment activities at educational institutions that participate in the training of individuals with disabilities and Vietnam Era veterans.

The Office of Equal Opportunity conducts awareness training regarding the American’s with Disabilities Act, Sexual Harassment, and other civil rights issues as well as training on faculty and upper level staff (Tier II) hiring throughout the year. The Office of Equal Opportunity also monitors all faculty and Tier II hiring and investigates internal allegations of civil rights violations reported to the office from the University community.

The University aims to promote recruitment and retention of students from a variety of international, geographic, age, religious, and cultural backgrounds, encompassing both genders, varieties in sexual orientation, and students with disabilities. The University of New Mexico currently has a high proportion of Hispanic and Native American students, as well as students from countries all over the world, with a large population of students from Asia. There are other areas of the world such as Africa that are not strongly represented on our campus.

The University of New Mexico can promote diversity in the thinking and lived experiences of students by building upon already established programs. These include exchange and service learning programs, which allow students to experience life and education in a cultural milieu different from their own, and return to UNM enriched by these experiences that will then enhance not only their lives but the lives of other students with whom they share what they have learned. In addition, diversity can and should be incorporated widely into the curriculum. The Anderson Schools have integrated the subject of workforce diversity into their required/core curriculum at both the undergraduate and graduate levels -- using experiential learning principles. An article on this subject is available at the website: www.unm.edu/~hmuller (Integrating workforce diversity into the management curriculum). The website also contains a syllabus for Mgt 306, which is an example of one section of the class in which this is done. These are examples of the resources and "best practices" that should be widely shared within the University.

Current student retention rates for men vs. women, and for specific minority groups are included in Appendix B, which also includes workforce demographic data for faculty and staff.

A broad array of programs is already in place to promote and support diversity at UNM. However, there is surprisingly little mutual awareness, communication, cooperation, and coordination among these programs. Duplication of resources and services is common, with many programs focusing on a single group or aspect of diversity. Such isolation of efforts does not serve the University well, nor does it promote a truly broad understanding of diversity.

The list of support programs identified by the committee suggests that the vast majority of the diversity programs on campus are focused on students, with very little offered to promote this University value among faculty and staff.

Diversity programs for faculty and staff at UNM are focused almost entirely on ensuring compliance with federal and state mandates with regard to hiring and employment policies and procedures. The Administration of the University of New Mexico signed a conciliation agreement with the Office of Federal Contract Compliance (U.S. Department of Labor) in 1990. In the agreement the University agreed to a process of addressing the issues of under-represented groups. These groups are Hispanics, Native Americans, Asian/Pacific Islanders, African Americans and females. The process included identification of job titles within the University system. Comparisons were made of these job titles with the Department of Labor and other sources such as the American Association of Medical Colleges in order to determine the numbers and availability of underutilized individuals with the requisite skills to do each job title at UNM. The job titles were divided by recruitment area. The recruitment areas are metropolitan for clerical, skilled workers etc, regional for management level and national for upper level administration and faculty. UNM produces an annual report on current underutilization by job title.

When a search for a new position is initiated, the search committee must do targeted recruiting for those jobs that are considered underutilized. Search committees must include at least one female and one minority group member. When a job title is determined to be underutilized, extra efforts are expected of the search committee to find applicants with the requisite skill from underutilized groups. Through this process of identifying the underutilized applicants, coupled with a complex system of paperwork for monitoring the search process, UNM is proactively working toward the Federal Government’s, the State’s, and the University’s goals of diversifying the faculty and staff. This process has had moderate success, mostly in the lower paying job groups. White females are the major beneficiaries of the programs in the higher administration and faculty positions. It has been determined that some departments of UNM do personal recruiting by contacting applicants and pre-applicants, and by following up with effective mentoring programs. These proactive programs have been the most successful ones at UNM. The Law School has done an excellent job at eliminating underutilization in their faculty and currently has one of the most diverse faculty. The College of Education is close behind. These two programs should serve as major resources for other units in the University as they plan and execute their own diversity plans.

There are problems with the recruitment process. The expectations of the Federal Department of Labor and those of the State of New Mexico are potentially in conflict. This is particularly true for faculty and higher administrative positions. The federal regulation, using nation-wide data, show that UNM is underutilized for African Americans and Asians. On the other hand, State legislators and their constituents have clearly stated expectations that the faculty and staff should reflect the demographics of the State of New Mexico. However, the number of Hispanic and Native American high school dropouts is very high in New Mexico and the numbers that go on to college, graduate and professional schools are very low. This poses a unique problem for UNM to meet federal mandates while trying to meet UNM’s and the State’s stated goals. A long-term solution likely requires starting at the K-12 and undergraduate levels.

Another proactive program that UNM engages in is creating an atmosphere that is conducive to a safe environment for the diverse students, faculty and staff. The Office of Equal Opportunity investigates alleged civil rights violations in both the teaching and work environments. The administration of UNM takes civil rights violations seriously and communicates this to line management.

There are pockets of programs for faculty and staff to help with retention and success at UNM. The staff services office offers help with career ladders and mentoring and skills building. Some colleges have developed mentoring programs for the junior faculty. The School of Medicine has appointed an Assistant Dean for Faculty Development, with mentoring programs, exit interviews to assess why faculty leave, as well as new faculty orientations to ensure an understanding by all new faculty of how to succeed in the academic culture. However, programs such as these are new and require more thought and resource coordination in their implementation.

UNM has an extensive array of relatively isolated programs that were created to help minority students. There has been no central method of measuring the outcomes of these programs, and communication and coordination of efforts among programs have been minimal. There are both problems and advantages to the vast number of academic support programs available to UNM students to promote success. Currently students can shop around for a program the best meets their academic support needs. Historically when the administration has suggested consolidating some of the programs in order to prevent duplication of efforts and benefit from consolidation of resources, this has been met with resistance and accusations that the administration was moving away from its commitment to diversity. Efforts to create an integrated array of programs working toward a common diversity goal are often met with opposition from managers of specific constituency programs, to preserve a status quo with minimal accountability for student outcomes. UNM currently has no centralized way to share knowledge and implement "best practices" among the many different programs for students.

4. GAPS IN CURRENT DIVERSITY EFFORTS

Perhaps the largest gap in the University, in addition to those described above, is its lack of any overall coherent, coordinated, evaluated effort to promote diversity among faculty and staff. Diversity should be a central value in all the University’s affairs, promoted prominently by top administration, and recognized and rewarded at all levels of faculty and staff. Specific measurable objectives need not only to be developed, but also communicated often to the University community, with ongoing opportunity to provide input.

Another significant gap is the lack of sufficient systematic institutional commitment to disenfranchised groups including ethnic minorities, women, the elderly or disabled, veterans, gay/lesbians, etc. There appears to be no systematic way for such groups to have direct, ongoing input regarding their particular needs.

The University should identify diversity as a major priority and utilize it as a major resource. Accomplishing these changes will require more than a statement of mission and values. More importantly, it will require the development and implementation of a systematic strategic plan to achieve diversity goals. Specific diversity goals should be developed and communicated to the university and greater community. The primary focus of the message should be that diversity is a high priority for the institution, and this message should be communicated often to the larger community. In order for these not to be empty albeit lofty goals, the University needs to make specific commitments to accomplish them through its administrative systems, employee evaluation procedures, recognition and reward programs, and the commitment of resources. Importantly, an evaluation system should be put in place to measure the effectiveness of current and future programs. The evaluation system can also be used as a management tool to provide essential information regarding success in achieving the University’s intended outcomes.

As the flagship university of the second most diverse state in the nation, UNM has a strong opportunity as well as responsibility to be a center of excellence with regard to diversity. Anything less represents a failure to be all that we could and should be. Our excellence in diversity should be a recruitment advantage, and a reason why people want to come and continue to work and study here. Diversity should be a clearly and consistently communicated and rewarded value from top administration throughout the fabric of the University, communicated by the Board of Regents, the President, the Provost and Vice Presidents, the Deans, Chairs, and Directors. Identifying the promotion of diversity as one of UNM’s top priorities is a strategic direction that can both stimulate and be advanced by the tremendous intelligence and creativity of the people of UNM.

UNM currently lacks an organizational structure that fosters diversity. There are different views as to how best to integrate and enrich our existing programs and resources. One view promotes the creation of a central administration "czar" responsible to oversee, promote and manage diversity, perhaps an Associate Provost or Vice President for Diversity, a strategy that has been pursued by some other universities.

A different approach is to seek systematic ways of infusing UNM’s diversity value throughout its programs, faculty, staff, and student body. Instead of relegating diversity to a special-function office, this approach views diversity as a top priority throughout the University’s affairs. For example, efforts of faculty, staff and students that promote the University’s mission and value with regard to diversity could and should be recognized in an institutional system of recognition and reward. Responsibility for such regular recognition could be assigned to various existing administrative units, and is already built into the University values section of annual performance evaluations for staff. In order to meaningfully promote diversity, the University should commit itself to a comprehensive, long term, in depth-effort to reevaluate fundamental institutional underpinnings such as its use of language, values, and communication between and among its diverse groups as well as management systems and its organizational policies and programs.

Coordination of currently isolated diversity efforts is sorely needed at UNM. If it is not pursued through the creation of a new central administrative unit, perhaps clusters of programs can be identified to have a common reporting structure that permits integration of efforts and administrative sharing of resources. One such obvious cluster would be programs designed to provide services to students. Offices, support staff, and reporting lines could be productively consolidated in a diversity center, freeing current resources currently consumed by duplication of services. Such resources should be fully committed to the promotion of diversity rather than diverted into other university functions. The consolidation of programs into a diversity center would further promote a broad view of diversity, rather than continuing separate and competing constituency groups. Current knowledge of effective approaches for promoting student success could be appropriately implemented as common best practices across programs. The Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs would seem a logical choice as the administrative unit to oversee such integration of diversity services for students. The need to avoid duplication of services between the main campus and the Health Sciences Center offers another opportunity for coordination and focusing of resources.

Even though diversity is readily endorsed in principle by the University community, it nevertheless proves to be quite challenging to implement in practice. Diversity of perspective can disrupt a comfortable consensus. That is, in fact, one of its chief values to a University, and a reason why support for diversity must come from the very top levels of administration. Institutions easily fall into dealing with diversity issues primarily on a reactive/compliance basis.

An example is found in the retention of faculty and students from diverse cultural backgrounds. While priority is given to diversity in the process of recruiting, faculty and students who then arrive on campus may be expected to fit into a fairly monolithic model of what constitutes success and how one achieves it. Women and minority groups, for example, often give higher priority to family and community issues, a value which readily comes into conflict with a nose-down perseverance that gives sole priority to academic achievement. Time-bound tenure and graduation tracks differentially disadvantage individuals and groups whose values deviate from the primacy of academic productivity. Here, then, is a significant challenge for a university: how to main academic excellence while embracing diversity. Affirmative action is but one locus of this tension.

One useful approach is for academic, administrative, and staff units to develop and implement effective mentoring and career-advancement programs that enhance the probability of success of all those for whom they are responsible. This does not circumvent the problem, for mentoring may still be oriented, for example, to helping a minority faculty member "fit into" the dominant academic value system. The University’s diversity programs should promote multiculturalism rather than assimilation. Nevertheless, such individualized mentoring and support can promote retention and success of faculty, staff, and students who represent diversity.

A controversial but highly promising approach is to develop alternative tracks for faculty, much as the School of Medicine has developed its Clinician Educator track. Such models could be explored for the main campus as well, for tenure- or non-tenure-tracks that give primary emphasis, for example, to excellence in research, teaching, or community involvement.

A University should also encourage its faculty and staff to stretch their own perceptions beyond the comfortable, and be enriched by diversity. This is reflected in one of the major current criteria in the review of NIH grants: innovation - the extent to which the research questions and challenges existing models. Faculty and staff should be actively encouraged to and rewarded for engaging in experiences that broaden and enable their understanding of diversity (for example, the learning of Spanish or another language). International exchange programs are one common resource for faculty, but exchanges could also be promoted within the United States, exposing faculty, staff and student to its diversity of cultures (e.g., Appalachia or the Southeast). UNM’s branch campuses also pose an untapped resource in this regard. Much could be gained by faculty and staff exchanges between the main campus and branch campuses.

Similarly, faculty should be encouraged to explore and evaluate diverse ways of teaching. Students come to UNM with various learning styles, and varieties of pedagogical approaches are useful in promoting diversity. Service learning is vastly underutilized at UNM, and offers opportunities for students to directly experience diversity in the community, while also fostering greater UNM-community contact and collaboration. Evening and weekend classes provide some flexibility for diverse students, but differences in teaching-learning styles need to be expanded at UNM. The School of Medicine has been highly successful in this regard in developing its culturally appropriate primary care curriculum.

Still another pedagogic approach is to encourage and enable instructors of every discipline to integrate diversity into their curriculum, in order to normalize a mainstream vision of diversity. Although the process of this incorporation will be challenging to faculty, ideas and workshops could be provided interdepartmentally or through the programs such as the Teaching Resource Center and the Center for the Advancement of Scholarship in Teaching and Learning (CASTL). Diversity at UNM should foster a fascination among students to learn more about the unique experiences of others. The integration of diversity as a mind set can establish a firm foundation for all other diversity programs and efforts throughout the university.

While it is common for UNM staff to come from New Mexico, there is an unwritten policy in academia against "hiring your own" graduates as faculty. Consequently we export some of our best minority scholars. While there are good reasons (such as the avoidance of inbred consensus) for caution in hiring one’s own graduates to the faculty, New Mexico is a particularly rich source of minority scholars, and greater openness is probably warranted in considering graduates of UNM doctoral programs for faculty posts.

Like individual skills, services do not improve without reliable feedback of outcomes. Operating programs without evaluation feedback is like learning to play golf while blindfolded. The importance of evaluation goes well beyond issues of accountability. The University has particular scientific expertise in program evaluation, that can be used for program development to improve our success in attracting, recruiting, and retaining diverse employees and students, and in promoting their academic and career success. Yet almost no use has been made of this faculty and staff expertise on behalf of the University’s diversity programs.

Beyond the importance of program evaluation, it would also be useful for the University to undertake a comprehensive diversity assessment to understand its current state of affairs. Such an evaluation could provide benchmarks for progress, which in turn could be attached to a specific timeline for accomplishment of diversity goals. This can be thought of as a periodic health check-up for the University. For a university, institutional diversity represents an important component of its health, whereas institutional racism (or other forms of intolerance) represent a state of infirmity. UNM needs to know its state of being with respect to diversity, and to move affirmatively toward health in all of its missions, units, programs and activities.

Diversity should be included as a fundamental value in the core curriculum. All students might be required to fulfill an area of study in non-western (non-European) based culture or religion. Non-western or non-dominant approaches to thought and scholarship could be a part of every student’s program of study. Although students would be encouraged to explore their own diverse heritages, they could also be expected to explore at least two additional perspectives.

Beyond offering or requiring core courses on diversity issues, it would be fruitful to encourage the incorporation of diversity perspectives into the mainstream curriculum of each academic unit. This serves to prevent sequestering diversity as a "special issue" and instead places it in the forefront of education. One approach entails blending the margins of interdisciplinary research, teaching and study opportunities for faculty and students. Such interdisciplinary approaches can result in new insights, new methods of scholarship and new knowledge. Selected areas are already moving forward with interdisciplinary programs and courses. Several interdisciplinary programs have a thirty-year history at UNM, and new and exciting possibilities exist for other interdisciplinary programs.

Exchange programs with the branch campuses are again a unique resource for UNM. Such things as undergraduate lower division student exchanges, faculty exchanges, joint research projects, and program sequencing can further increase interchange, interaction and diversity since the branch campuses are located in geographic, cultural and demographic areas that differ from Albuquerque. We can expand on the diversity of UNM itself (departments, programs, and branches) and use our own diversity as a resource by learning more about each other. Often, departments, programs, and campuses are unaware of the benefit/insight/resource of a nearby neighbor.

UNM has a wealth of creative resources in the generation and communication of knowledge. Faculty and student talents could be brought to bear on methods for effectively promoting the appreciation of diversity in the University curriculum. A recent master’s thesis in Communication and Journalism, for example, explored an alternative, experiential approach to diversity training. Thus UNM’s talent could be applied not only in the content of diversity, but also in the processes by which it can be fostered.

It is a widely shared and largely accurate perception that New Mexico students are poorly prepared for a university education. New Mexico’s brain drain involves not only the moving of gifted students out of state, but also the wasting of vast potential talent through poor preparation in primary and secondary education. In order to address this problem, the University needs to be actively and aggressively involved in improving K-12 education, to better prepare New Mexico students for a university education.

Given that our university and all of its subunits including its branch campuses are in varied geographical, historical, linguistic, and cultural milieus, with faculty, students, and staff in widely different disciplines, programs, and services, we are well positioned to diversify our current endeavors in scholarly work. A wide variety of ongoing scholarly activities embrace the notion of diversity, including medical research that targets specific populations, performing arts that celebrate the traditions of particular cultural groups, and studies that assess particular student group outcomes to determine the most effective teaching interventions and recruitment and retention programs. However, there is no dedicated repository of the reports resulting from such scholarly works so it is difficult to ascertain precisely their current nature and scope.

In general, we categorize scholarly works into basic and applied, with the latter including the notion of action research. The idea of diversity in scholarly works is broad and encompasses the subject areas and methodological approaches, as well as the people who are researchers of such scholarly works, the people who are the subjects of the inquiry, and those who are recipients of the research outcomes and who may benefit directly or indirectly from the research.

NM has a unique historical presence and role within the United States that is often unrecognized in the broader U.S. society. Contemporary scholarship is re-writing history from a multiple perspectives as new voices and new methodological perspectives emerge and revisit the underpinnings of U.S. society. These include its colonialist past and indigenous roots that can reframe our understanding of the role and importance of groups, including indigenous societies, whose voices are largely marginalized. Moreover, it will be important to bring forward new results of intellectual inquiry and to build upon the emerging scholarship: some examples include land use patterns, agriculture production especially dry-land farming, ancient celestial studies, trade patterns, language development, forms of creative expression (such as song and dance), and social governance systems. UNM can play a pivotal role in bringing a more balanced perspective on historical patterns that inform contemporary society and in re-examining neglected traditions of "caring" for Mother Earth by earlier societies who had such welfare as a core value. The confluence of cultures in the southwestern region and their ability to co-exist in historical times could emerge as an important study to discern strategies for contemporary living.

UNM could aspire to become the cultural integrative conscience of U.S. modern society – it could recreate itself into a multicultural institution at the vanguard of integrative, multidisciplinary, intellectual inquiry both in basic and applied scholarship, based on the state’s unique historical, linguistic, cultural, and societal resources. The bringing together of historical scholarship and contemporary intellectual inquiry will be an important intersection to nourish as contemporary scholars draw both upon its historical legacy, thus embracing previously marginalized scholarship, and its contemporary intellect to strategize for problem-solving of its societal, political, and economic issues.

UNM could target select subject areas to develop further expertise that builds upon the scholarship that already is flourishing. Examples include: medical research in particular population groups; Native American and Hispanic studies; economic development and outreach to underserved populations; advanced technology and the commercialization of research projects that create access for specific groups into the global economy; and educational strategies for multicultural constituencies. Part of the emphasis in contemporary diversity inquiry is to recognize that methodological approaches to inquiry are diversifying and that the experimental, scientific method (positivist approaches) is only one point on a continuum of research methodologies. Diverse persons require diverse methods to be embraced and credit needs to be given to new forms of scholarship and creative expression. Examples of these include the "oral traditions" and other qualitative methods of inquiry and "ceremonials" and other creative forms of expression.

UNM could add a Business Development category as well. By having someone responsible, UNM would be creating a system where consistent and dependable follow-through would be in place. Most of the University efforts in these areas could be directed with diversity goals in mind. There are already many of these types of efforts in place, such as social services from faculty, outreach efforts from various departments, and volunteer work through service learning programs These efforts could help make the University a significant player in the development of the local area and the whole state’s economy and community.

Some scholars argue that as the world becomes more global and cross-national, that we become more ethnic identity and culturally conscious; others argue that we are evolving toward a "global" culture in which such distinctions blur. The reality is that both arguments are correct – both trends are developing. It is already clear that as we increase the population and move toward the critical carrying capacity of the earth, that her resources are becoming strained; thus new ways of living together, of finding new means of resolving conflicts will be importance, of rationing resources (i.e. water and land and energy). We will have to rely on the best minds – and such minds are to be found in all our diverse population groups. UNM must play a key role in embracing their participation in the intellectual community, both in the arts and sciences and in the professional schools.

UNM must bring its departments and programs together to envision what collaborative research and creative works could produce from the synergy created by bringing diverse groups of people together who represent various traditions, cultures and disciplines. It is well known in the scientific and management literatures that group heterogeneity or diversity takes more time to manage effectively and that its end result is better strategies and better ideas/solutions. UNM needs to develop incentives for recruiting diverse, committed, and excellent scholars to engage in such intellectual activity, to heighten its publication of such works (such as the UNM Press), but also develop a working papers series internally to UNM to describe attempts, successes, and failures that can serve to stimulate cross-disciplinary discourse. UNM should also develop new forums for discourse, provide expert assistance with grant development, and support mentoring programs for young scholars (faculty, graduate, and undergraduates) who may not have had opportunities in the past, but who certainly possess the intellectual fortitude to participate in the intellectual community of the university.

If we can begin to truly practice an internal commitment to becoming a diversity-friendly institution, we will need to begin a diversity consciousness raising process and to place our own institution as a research subject in this endeavor. We would invite our own faculty, staff, students, and other constituents to engage in action research as we recreate who we are as an institution. This involves studying our own institutional processes and using the data collected (from both quantitative and qualitative inquiries) to improve and change our institution to become a "multicultural" institution. UNM should consider creating a group whose purpose would be to begin a university wide dialogue by going to each department and college and program to "diversity-audit" such entities and, in particular, to assess what we are already doing well in the area of "diversity inquiry" and how we can further enhance such practices and scholarship. It is well known that bureaucracies are slow to change and that there is tension between the value of academic freedom and the need to collectively shape a strategic future for our state/university to embrace diversity. There are three options for change: dictating change from the top, proactive and enlightened management that facilitates change, or laissez faire – market driven change. UNM should opt for the middle approach.

A list of specific recommendations developed by the committee is provided in Appendix A below. The recommendations are grouped into three broad areas: representation in the organizational structure and climate; recruitment, retention, and employment programs; and resource issues. Examples of organizational structure or climate issues include hiring and retaining Hispanics, Native- and African-Americans, and women in middle and top levels of administration, developing policies that value diversity, or including diversity in the curriculum. Recruitment and retention programs would involve salary set-aside programs for minority faculty, dual career programs, or programs to retain key faculty or administrators. Resource issues include identifying the necessary personnel and money to carry out and achieve the diversity goals.

A. Organizational Structure and Climate

1. Conduct a comprehensive diversity audit that assesses the entire university’s commitment and work toward creating a multicultural organization.
2. Create a position and unit, preferably reporting to the President, that will be in charge of recruiting, reviewing, retaining, and hiring a diverse workforce, both faculty and staff.
3. Expand diversity awareness, mentoring, promotion, etc. programs for staff because they are almost non-existent.
4. Expand diversity awareness, mentoring, promotion, etc. programs for faculty because they are almost non-existent.
5. Develop an organizational structure that will foster structural integration of diversity and places diversity as its highest priority with appropriate accountability mechanisms.
6. Create a campus-wide committee on Diversity Promotion, which should include administration, faculty, staff, and students that is appointed by and reports to the President.
7. Develop a reward structure for administration, faculty, and staff that values and promotes diversity.
8. Develop an evaluation and assessment system to measure accountability for diversity promotion.
9. Ensure that all diversity programs implemented are accessible and equitable.
10. Develop a campus-wide committee of faculty, staff, and students to examine diversity in the structure of the University and in the curriculum at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
11. UNM must review all current policies and procedures to insure that they promote diversity and assist in producing a diverse workforce, rather than hinder the process.
12. Gather information on the branch campuses, the broadcast media and the Extended University.

B. Recruitment, Retention and Employment

13. The University must take a proactive approach to recruiting a diverse workforce.
14. Develop diversity awareness and skills development training programs for administration, faculty, staff, and students.
15. Develop a reward system for recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce.
16. Develop a Salary Set-Aside Program to hire a diverse pool of faculty and staff.
17. Develop a dual career-hiring program to attract and retain dual career employees.
18. Develop ESL courses for non-English speaking employees.
19. UNM workforce, especially at middle and top administrative levels should reflect the racial makeup of the State of New Mexico and, therefore, programs to effect this must be implemented.
20. UNM should have a Native American, African American in its top administration.
21. Develop mentoring programs for faculty, staff, and students to recruit and retain a diverse workforce.
22. Early intervention to ensure student’s academic success in college and career through course advisement and introduction to career opportunities through:

• Time Management – Teach efficient use of school, study, family, work and leisure time.
• Career Development – If a student begins planning in the eighth grade, it helps with their course selection for high school.
• College Availability – Many students from under-represented groups do not have the family background and/or resources to know that college is an option for them. They do not know how to go about looking for a college or matching a college to their goals.
• Scholarship Requests – Many students from under-represented groups do not have access to the financial aid possibilities and do not know how to go about finding out what financial resources are available.
• Goal Planning – Should be taught at an early age in order to take the correct high school courses and plan for College tied in with interests and aptitudes.
• Application Coaching – The preparation of the College application is very important in order to get in to the college of their choice. There are skills that can be taught in preparation of the application.

• Time Management – Teach efficient use of school, study, family, work and leisure time.
• Study Skills – Methods of studying for Math vs. English can vary from student to student. Each student needs to learn to study using their own learning style.
• Course Advisement – Goals need to be assessed and course advisement needs to correlate to goals and requirements. Develop an academic plan.
• Assertiveness Skills – Many students from under-represented groups culturally are not taught assertiveness - Many confuse assertiveness with aggressiveness.
• Problem Solving – In order to be successful in academics and in life students need to learn more than the facts of a course. The most successful people are those that know how to problem solve.

• Professional Assessment – Administer career tests, identify career possibilities
• Personality Profiles – Administer tests such a Strong Campbell to identify aptitudes
• It could hold "Working with UNM" workshops much like Sandia Laboratories does for its potential small business partners.

C. Resources

25. Commit institutional resources, i.e. financial, human, technological, etc, to insure campus diversity goals are achieved.
26. UNM administration must make ""valuing diversity"" one of its highest priorities and must communicate frequently and consistently this message to the university and broader community. 27. UNM must look past the current federal standards for underutilization of staff and develop long-term goals for bringing the demographics of its employees and students to reflect that of the state is serves.

Recruitment, Utilization, Retention, and Demographic Data on UNM Students, Faculty, and Staff.